day 45: monday, fourth of july
- woke up at 7:30, packed all the last minute things, stripped our beds, ate breakfast and were preparing to do the dishes when we realized it was already 8:20 (our train left at 8:40!)… caryn and i rushed through the dishes and, by some miracle, managed to get settled into our seats on the train just in time, thank goodness florence is such a small city!
- arrived in rome at about 10:30 and discovered there was a train leaving for the airport at 10:52. we bought tickets and headed down towards the platform, only to discover it was the longest walk ever. we found ourselves running for our second train of the day but, once again, we made it and were on our way in good time
- arrived at the airport and found that caryn and i were flying out of the same terminal. we each went to our respective check-ins but i was stuck between two ENORMOUS school groups so i was quickly joined by caryn. i had already checked in the day before and i remembered that i had been assigned seat 1A, which is first class, so i decided to abandon the line (i did leave caryn there just in case) and hop into the business class line to check. sure enough, after another long wait (i will not miss italian inefficiency at all) i discovered my hunch was correct and was able to check in at the business class desk and avoid the school group – what a treat! the man at the desk didn't even mention the weight of my bag (which i was a bit nervous about). fortune could not have picked a better leg of my journey for an upgrade
- caryn and i went through security, found a bathroom and drinking fountain, and got sandwiches from the terminal café. we decided to head to the gate to eat and were glad we did since we had to take a little train to the actual gates! we sat at caryn’s gate, finished my pringles, and ate our sandwiches before I headed off to board my plane
- my bus from the terminal felt like it drove across the entire airport campus to get to the plane, but eventually we arrived, i got settled and read a bit of the decameron before passing out. i woke up to lunch: cheese stuffed cannelloni, fresh fruit, bread & cheese & ham… all served on actual china, i love first class! i was tempted to ask the hostess for a glass of wine, just because i could, but i decided that since my travels were far from over it was best to stick to water
- was first off my plane, walked straight through passports (no line!) which only made my wait for my bags more agonizing than usual (my bags have been lost so many times - until i see it come down the carousel i'm always excessively anxious). while i waited i tried to get cash out, but the atm didn't like me very much. luckily, upstairs i found a friendly one and bought my first cup of tea from costa coffee since i was absolutely gasping. went out to the coach area and found my bus stop... i had a 45 minute wait until our coach so i popped into WHSmiths and got an egg & cress sandwich, cadbury fruit & nut, and a roll of blackcurrant soothers to celebrate my arrival in the land of all things delicious and english
- got on the coach, which was fairly empty, found a seat and headed off to terminal 5 to pick up caryn! our coach ride was fairly uneventful and we arrived early in southampton, which was a bonus. i did, however, have one of my uncontrollable coughing fits which lasted pretty much the entire 2 hours. i felt bad for our fellow travelers, but i can't help it!
- caryn and i got dumped at the southampton coach station, found a map, and decided to trek out to the ferry on foot (since the shuttle we had heard about mysteriously did not exist) we stopped at mcdonald's on the way and i got my second cup of tea, as well as a bottle of water, and finally managed to sooth my throat.
- just when i thought my arms were going to fall off, we saw the red funnel sign. we went into the area labeled foot passengers and bought two tickets from the self-service kiosk (since this is england and everything is closed after 6) only to discover that they were for the wrong ferry. after a few frantic minutes of total confusion, we realized there was another red funnel station further down the quay that we hadn't even seen which was to the correct destination. we sat and waited for about 45 minutes, then 25 minutes later we were in west cowes and found my mama and daddy!
 |
| could it get any more english? |
- two more cups of tea with the family while i gave them all my presents from italy (with a strict no-return policy, i need the suitcase space!) after hanging out for about an hour and catching up a bit we all headed to bed... we were exhausted!
for those of you keeping track, today caryn and i took 2 trains, an airport monorail, an airport bus, 1 plane (each), a national express coach, walked, a ferry, and a car... all in about 16 hours. it's a miracle we got here in one piece! also, a brief disclaimer for anyone who doesn't know already: when i'm in england my languages get confused in that my thoughts switch into english (accent, vocabulary, etc) yet it comes out american. this results in quite garbled thoughts/writing since i'm constantly flipping based on who i'm talking to and whatnot, bear with me. (it will only get worse when i move to france) i also PROMISE i will get around to adding pictures and polishing the last week of posts soon, it took me a while to steal everyone's memory cards, but i have them all now.
